Noel Williams ends training career with winner at Southwell

Noel Williams announced his immediate retirement from the training ranks after saddling Lairig Mor to victory at Southwell on Tuesday.

Formerly assistant to Alan King, Williams took out his own training licence in 2013 and has since enjoyed notable success with high-class mares like Briery Queen and Largy G.

Lairig Mor was a 9-1 shot for his racecourse debut in the Ladies Day Sunday 16th August Open National Hunt Flat Race and claimed a three-length victory in the hands of James Davies, after which an emotional Williams said he had made the difficult to decision to “pull up stumps”.

“That’s my last ever runner. Unfortunately I don’t really have enough horses to make it viable financially,” the Blewbury handler told Sky Sports Racing.

“You can cope with breaking even in this industry because we do it for the love of it and there’s nothing I love more than doing what I’ve done for the last 12 years, which is get up in the morning and train racehorses for great people.

“But there comes a point when you’ve just got to say enough is enough, I can’t keep piling money into it and losing money and it got to that point, so we’ve decided to pull up stumps for the minute.

“I’m on the open market – if someone wants to employ me as a trainer here I am!”

Reflecting on the highlights of his career, Williams added: “The first winner was special and today is incredibly special, but there’s been some fantastic days in between.

“We’ve won two mares’ finals at Newbury and won a couple of races at Cheltenham in mares’ hurdles – we’ve done particularly well with the mares.

“One or two of the most talented horses I’ve trained have just been a bit fragile and we’ve never really seen their potential, but there’s been lots of good days, I’ve trained for some wonderful people and I’m just very grateful that I got the opportunity to train for as long as I have.

“I’m not going anywhere and I’ve still got 20 years of training left in me if the opportunity came along. I love it and this is a difficult day, I never really thought fairy tales would happen – especially not to me – but this is a good way to go out.”